Thursday, May 27, 2010

As the days grow longer and hotter during spring’s transition into summer, field biologists with the Red Wolf Recovery Program also begin a transition. April and early May represent the ever busy denning season, during which biologists spend the majority of their time creeping through the woods in search of newborn red wolf puppies. The current tally of litters found this year stands at eight, a bit of a disappointment after finding 11 litters a year ago. But this year's pup count is 39, which was close to last year's 41 pups. In addition, two captive born pups were flown in from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and fostered into a wild litter to be raised by wild parents . Fostering captive born pups into wild litters is a technique we have used for several years now (with great success!) as a method of both increasing the red wolf population and preserving genetic diversity.

Now, as summer approaches and the pups get older, the search for additional dens will diminish as biologists begin to make the transition to summertime trapping, maintenance, and catching up on office work. We will, however, continue to monitor the wolf packs throughout the summer months for evidence of potential litters that may have been missed during the denning season. -- Ryan

Friday, May 7, 2010

Four female red wolf puppies (10-12 days old) were our reward for a long, hot day of crawling through thick mats of vegetation and entanglements of vines and briers. The Rich pack's den was finally located in a hole dug into the root system of a large pine tree. To get to it we spent hours searching, literally crawling on our hands and knees, sometimes wriggling along on our bellies through a labyrinth of tunnels underneath a fortress of vegetation so thick that there was really no other way through it.

Still, we couldn't’t help but be impressed with the mother wolf’s selection of a den site – these puppies were definitely well hidden. Although we left the puppies at the den, we did manage to bring home with us a nice collection of ticks, briers, and poison ivy as a keepsake. We don’t refer to the denning season as the ‘itchy season’ for nothing. -- Ryan

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Wolf Recovery Program

The red wolf (Canis rufus) is one of the world's most endangered canids. Once common throughout the eastern and southcentral United States, red wolf populations were decimated by the early part of the 20th Century as a result of intensive predator control programs and the degradation and alteration of the species' habitat. The red wolf was designated an endangered species in 1967, and shortly thereafter the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated efforts to conserve the species. Today, more than 100 red wolves roam their native habitats in eastern North Carolina, and nearly 200 red wolves are maintained in captive breeding facilities throughout the United States. To learn more about red wolves, please visit our website at www.fws.gov/redwolf.

[All photos are the property of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are in the public domain. You are free to use them as you wish - no permission is necessary. However, we ask that you give credit to the photographer and/or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (example, Photo credit: John Doe/USFWS)].